Churches eye immigration's upside

Evangelical groups in recent weeks have become key players in the Obama administration’s efforts to get immigration reform moving in Congress. And while they have largely couched their arguments in moral terms or with references to biblical teachings, top leaders acknowledge another important reason:

“First and foremost, it’s a kingdom issue, and, second, it’s a moral issue,” Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, told POLITICO. “We have hundreds of thousands of Hispanic Southern Baptists and many of them are undocumented. … It’s no secret that we practice aggressive evangelism. Many of these people were converted after they got here.”

Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, puts it another way. “When people migrate, they’re open to all kinds of change, including religious change. Evangelical denominations have historically drawn immigrants. … The growing edge of many of our denominations is through immigration from all over the world.”

Anderson insisted, however, that his organization was urging the government to act because of broader moral and social concerns — and not to help churches fill their pews.

“That is a motivation for evangelicals to be involved in this. However, I don’t think from a government point of view it should be a religious decision. It’s primarily a justice decision and a political decision. I’m not suggesting that legislation be based on a benefit for a particular denomination. It should be based on what’s practical for America,” Anderson said.

While the White House hasn’t explicitly endorsed the religious conservatives’ arguments, they were invited and given front-row seats earlier this month when President Barack Obama delivered a speech on immigration reform at American University.

Most of the arguments put forward by the conservative religious figures are similar to those of other immigration-reform advocates, including Catholics and left-leaning religious groups. The evangelicals’ insist that the treatment of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants is inhumane and immoral. They also argue that legalizing the undocumented would improve national security and reduce labor abuses by persuading immigrants to “come out of the shadows.”

However, the evangelical leaders are also advancing a more controversial line of argument: that immigration reform is practical or even desirable because Latinos subscribe to moral and religious values in line with social conservatives.

Some evangelicals have stirred the pot further by drawing a contrast between predominantly Christian immigrants to the U.S. and a largely Muslim migration to Western Europe.

“Realistically, I think it is probably more politically feasible to do this because the overwhelming majority of the people that we’re talking about come from a European civilization,” said Land. “It would be more problematic if we had 12 [million] to 14 million undocumented people and they were either Oriental or Islamic. … Whether that is right or wrong, I’m just giving you a realistic political calculation.”

“When I talk to political and religious leaders in Europe, one of their great concerns is their migration is coming from non-Christian regions, whereas most of our immigration is coming from people who have a Christian tradition,” Anderson said.

Muslim leaders who back immigration reform said they welcome the evangelicals to the effort, but view comments about the religious backgrounds of immigrants as unhelpful.